The Phoenix Suns continued an aggressive rebuild of their franchise Sunday when they submitted the highest bid for free agent forward Luis Scola and were awarded the rights to the 32-year-old forward, according to league sources.

Because of Scola’s contract with Houston, which had $10 million in unguaranteed money in the final year of the deal, the Suns had to submit a bid of at least $3.3 million per year for Scola, and commit $10 million over three years.

Several teams, including Dallas and Cleveland, were believed to have submitted bids for Scola, who was amnestied on Friday by the Rockets in order to clear more cap room for potential runs at Orlando’s Dwight Howard, or to be able to take on other big contracts in potential trades if they don’t get Howard. Scola, according to a league source, wanted to go someplace where he would play right away.

The Suns knew it would be difficult for them to retain franchise player Steve Nash, and the team agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the Lakers earlier this month for the 38-year-old guard. But the Suns were able to get two future first-round and two future second-round picks, along with $3 million, for Nash.

And Phoenix has come out of the gate in free agency, signing former Rockets guard Goran Dragic to a four-year, $30 million deal, and quickly following that up with a three-year, $18 million deal for Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley. The Suns tried to get Hornets restricted free agent Eric Gordon, giving him a four-year, $58 million offer sheet. But New Orleans insisted all along it would match any sheet for Gordon, and it did.

107 Comments

Also, remember that Dragic and Scola have chemistry from when they played together in Houston. I am a Rockets fan, and both of these are good pickups for the Suns. I am saddened to see both leave Houston.
Houstons starters –
Lin – PG
Martin – SG
Parsons – SF
Montejunas – PF
Asik – C
With Lamb, Jones, White, and Patterson off the bench. I think we can possibly do something with that. Not a championship team, but a promising young team.

LIN is so like Leborn he had the fans and the support of the fans and now he just going to the Rockets just to make money when in New York he can make money and have a nice chance to win but, i don’t care him being in Houston because he gonna lose all day bu tjust make money and lose. All i do is lose lose lose i stink at basketball and i know and the knicks fans will boo me

Scola was a 16-6 guy in houston last season….hes a reliable PF….im surprised that it only took 3.3 million a year to get him ….Brooklyn was taking all the big contracts…so far they have Williams, Johnson, Wallace, and Lopez…Humphires is inconsistant…im surprised they didnt bid for Scola at 5-9 million…i think hes worth more higher.

They have the Cap-Space (10-14 million remaining after Gortat, Scola, Fry, Morris, Beasley, Warrick, Dudley, Dragic, Telfair and Marshall) but ultimately… According to Phx-local Radio Host John Gambo…. OJ Mayo wants 8 million per year, probably atleast 3 years, which would make him the highest paid Suns player… So unless he comes down, the Suns aren’t interested

At this point the Suns glaring need in free agency is that of a scoring, athletic 2 guard. Obviously, Gordon was their target but now looks like either O.J. Mayo or Courtney Lee could be signed. Not sure how Suns feel about a roster with both Mayo AND Beasley. If the Suns signed Lee that would be three players from last year’s Rockets.

I understand the thought process of “who takes the big shot, late” but when you look at the all around scoring ability (literally 8 guys on the roster –not including whoever they aquire with their remaining 10-14 mill of salary cap space— that can put up double-figures, 4 of which can go for 30 on any given night) the suns don’t need a Scorer over the defensive ability of a Courtney Lee type defender for the Kobe’s and dual-threat Durant/Westbrook, DWill/Johnson, Lebron/Wades’ of the world

its great to see dragic back in suns uniform!!!! a great player!!!! him and the rookie PG are a great line of PG! scola is the man!!! a good PF and a great low post scorer! the suns really really really need that post game!! didnt have any last year! need to get a good SG and they will be a nice team but clearly not a playoff one.. i say let lopez go! get a good big instead, then you will have gortat scola fry and an other good big, thats not bad! beasly, i dont like him, he is a beat overrated! you can see the potential but he just cant bring himself to the true level of player he could have been on nightly bases!

“….let lopez go” i agree with, unless he’s willing to earn his money rather than any form of guarentee, but when you say…

“… get a good big instead, then we will have gortat scola frye* and an other good big, thats not bad!” … you are forgetting Morris is already that other good big.. the suns don’t need J Oneal or any other old or “under-acheiving” big… we already have that with lopez and unless he is offered some “ridiculous” contract, then he will be able to come back to this organization with even less expectations since he was playing for Stanford

It seems like the Suns got good bargains on Scola and Beasley, but they may have just slightly overspent on Dragic. The Suns now have ridiculous depth from the 3 through the 5, but they’re significantly lacking at the 2. Having 5 small forwards and 0 shooting guards is just unacceptable. Also, their distribution of talent is way too even with not a single star player, which is not exactly a recipe for success.

I think for the most part you are overexaggerating the actual progress/movement of the team and ultimately show little knowledge of what the Suns 1-5 rotations will be.

First and for most. There are, Currently (not including potential aquiisitions of OJ Mayo or whomever the remaining 10-14 Million of Phoenixs’ salary cap space), 5 guys on this team that WILL avg 15ppg next season. Gortat, Scola, Beasley, Dragic and Morris. Secular Math instantly translates into 90ppg from this core, and when you add the other averging double-figures’ scorers on this roster, like Frye, Dudley, Warrick with the rest (K Marshall, S Telfair, and two other roster spots…. Mayo, C Lee??) there is no reason this team won’t be scoring near a league-high in PPG, around 115-120 per.

It is important for this team to develop a repore so the chemistry can resemble last decades’, high-paced Nash-led Suns. but considering there is legitimately 8 double figure players, including 4 individuals who all can go for 30+ on any night, and still has over 10 Mill in cap space to land a potential SuperStar….

This is definetly an underrated team, you have Scola(the most underrated big man, epic post moves),you have Dragič who we have seen he can run an offense day in day out, Michael Beasly one of the greatest talents yet to proove himself, the Polish Hammer, Telfair, Frye, mayo…

suns are very underrated. we not only have about 8 or 9 average but producing players and then 3 or 4 very good players (dragic gortat scola markieff) we can afford to trade some decent players and draft pics for a star. i say why not trade for a star sf or sg. once one asks for a trade which is bound to happen as it does every year. they need to jump on it and pull the trigger cause right now there looking at a 6-8th seed but with a star they could be at home for the 1st round.

Apparently Robin Lopez is wanting quite a lot of money, I say the Suns don’t resign him and try to get an experianced Center who can clog the middle for cheap like: Eddy Curry, Jermaine O’Neal, Joel Pryzabilla, or Ronny Turiaf. They could get all of them for the minimum. Save a little money for next year when guys like Pekovic, Okafor, Splitter and Enes Kanter are avaliable as Gortat’s backup. Go SUNS.

The Suns are on the hook for 45-48 Million or so depending on what is actually going to get paid to Scola and Marshall’s rookie contract, holding a current 10-man roster of Gortat, Scola, Beasley, Dragic, Frye, Morris, Marshall, Warrick, Dudley, and Telfair

Considering they need to fill out the roster (and there are plenty of guys from the Summer League Roster for minimum-level contracts) the Suns can either save the 10-13 milliion they have for potential mid-season additions, or use that to bring in an OJ Mayo, Joel Pryzbilla, R Foye, or make trades for guys that are currently being “Shopped” like Gasol from LA or Derrick Williams/K Love from Minnesota.

Adding Pau (Grant Hill S&T ??), or another scoring Big to go with Mayo, all on top of the current roster… Phoenix would compete on a nightly basis

Well if they get O.J. Mayo then they have Dragic who is a good sized PG to defend, and Mayo and Dudley are both good perimeter defenders aswell. What they really need is interior defence, cause as much as I love Gortat he’s not the best defender. A proposal could be to sign and trade lopez with either of Telfair or Warrick for guys like Anderson Varejao, or Nick Collison.

the suns have done a great job for what they are working with.. they will have a very nice hard working team and be fun to watch.. so should we worry about jersey sales and tv revenue? lmao cause no championships in the near future or even close for phoenix fans..

although free agency is different than trades i still wish suns couldve made some moves within the past two years, im actually a lil eager to see how the suns do right now with these moves, although i follow nash wherever he goes

Love the moves by the suns! Dragic will be phenomenal this year and if Beasley puts on the floor half his talent this year will be good for the suns. Maybe sign n trade McGee for Gortat n trade some draft picks n whoever for Shumbert?

You can’t let frye go, he’s still under contract. So is Josh Childress. Those two will be on the roster. I like scola, and he and gortat should be decent together. But there’s no stars still… Just a bunch of average players. Colin Cowherd has it right when he says you don’t need stars, you need the RIGHT stars. Gordon is not a star in this league, but I’d say he’s about as good as Joe Johnson and he’s a good kid too. And Johnson was enough to get D-Will to stay in jersey. The suns need a player like that so they can get a true star. With Beasley and possibly Mayo they will have the talent, but they are both headcases too… Probably not the right moves for the future even though there wasn’t much else on the table this off season. Just don’t commit too much money PLEASE!!!

against that PHX squad all day. We could STILL pull off an 8th seed and be better than last year! Don’t get me wrong, I love Scola like the next man.. but if all else fails, I’ll keep this lineup, my TOR lottery pick, and sign Bynum next summer… or tank with this lineup and have 2 lottery picks, but that team is better than you think and a veteran SG will be signed before preseason so chill….

the suns got scola now nice with dragic and beasley those are rising stars the suns are going to make a deep good playoff run next season and in the future and its anybodys game to make it to the finals in the west and the suns could make that run there getting stronger and better

Financial Guy….this one is easy…it’s all about marketing dollars. Houston is still feeling the pains of losing Yao due to his knee issues and they are desperately in need to appease the Asian community. They figured no matter how Lin plays, he will ALWAYS get a following and support, and the club will sell all of Lin’s merchandise and recoup the $25.1 mil spent on him. You can bet that is why they went after Lin and gave him that unproven contract instead of signing the sure thing in Goran Dragic. It’s all about marketing dollars.

Just one comment about this. Dragic had an amazing year last season. He just got signed to Phoenix on a 4-year 30 million dollar deal. Why would Houston not offer him a similar contract as Lin? I mean they already had a proven player. Why offer Lin a 3 year 25 million dollar contract and let a guy who you already know can deliver go to a team on a 4 year 30 million dollar contact? Could someone explain this to me? That there is the true definition of Lin-sanity!!!

because even so Dragic is the better player. Lin will sell more jerseys. This game is a business. Same thing with Howard. Even thou he might play one year, millions of jerseys in China do the trick, even if he stays in H-town for just 1 year. Sad but true.

The explanation: Slovenia and China are not comparable in population, market size, potential of generating revenues from.
Lin is a huge name for viewers from Asia, and that possibly would convert to revenues for the Rockets.

we are all shaking our head on this one.. makes no sense to let dragic go and pay lin the same money. then somebody chimes in about this asian market jersey/tv revenue.. good luck with that houston, if you want mediocrity every night and can’t afford to attend games.. then who cares about jersey sales/tv revenue.. 1/2 the center will be empty in about 5 months when they are well below 500 with no plan in sight… no superstars, a bunch of rookies and journeymen as your starting 5.. a college team.. roflmao.. serves them right..

It’s all about money. While Yao played at Houston, Chinese markets (and to a smaller part other Asian markets) exploded… Getting Lin would just futher this… The Rockets are trying to expand there name. Don’t forget that the NBA is the fastest growing sport in the world.. I can’t say I agree with the move.. Lin is not a big contract guy. As I said.. It is all about money..

Redd still can be a good player , but only from the bench on certain amount of minutes. so brown to replace that minute , deficit.

Ronnie Price is a good player , Good defender. Suns need someone to defense well on backourt those days with scoring just more than rival are gone. we need to build having serious effort on defense. Markieff should spend his summer improving this aspect. And maybe insted Redd , Sign some 6-9 able to defend elite 3’s from rivals.

With this moves , Nash farewell seems less dramatic , but still much muhc rebuilding work needs to be done.

How are you so sure? Who’s getting him then? Orlando isn’t going to just let him walk. Brooklyn definitely can’t get him, until January 15 that is. But Orlando is playing hot potato with him right now and Lakers are the front runners because of Bynum. Three team trade with either Rockets or Cleveland.

chandler, he’s sure cause teams are signing free agents, they can’t wait around to worry about howard..
if the magic don’t take 3 first round picks, humphries and lopez for howard and probably nets needed to take hedo or jrich contract, then they aren’t taking a straightup trade for bynum and houston doesn’t even have a lopez and humphries on their roster to add to a trade so no way a houston deal can happen.. nobody else has 3 first rnd picks and 2 decent players they can trade, but apparently it takes more than that… sooo howard stays in ORLANDO.. roflmao..

Pheonix has done well not sitting around mourning their loss. Making great moves to become a competitive team. Competing for the playoffs. Dont know if they’ll make it, the West is one tough conference

Sorry, but players like Durant, Lebron would run past Stoudemire easy, Stoudemire isn’t a perimeter defender, I would rather go with Kidd, Shumpert, Melo, Stoudemire, Chandler, Shumpert is a terrific perimeter defender. Plus I don’t think Camby has the legs to play as a starter, he will be a solid backup C though.

wow do you even know basketball? mello and stoudemire are far from the worst defenders at their positions lol stoudemire averaged over 2 blocks per game not that long ago and while melo is a serious offensive player he has good over all defense and stands at 6’8 which is ample defensive height for a sf, his defense is not great but it’s better than most starting small forwards so do a little research next time before you act like you know what your talking about. god why are kobe bryant fans such tards lol.

You’ve got to be kidding me.. Anthony & Stoudemire does not have ‘defense’ in their genes. Kidd & Camby are almost 40. And Chandler, still can’t understand how he won Defensive Player of The Year award last season, should have been Ibaka.

ou are funny. Carmelo does not play D, Amare doen not and J kidd used to, but is up there in age, how could They be one of the best defensive team depending only on Chqandler? Marcus is a reserve that can play short minutes because he like Kidd is old.

Nash is a giant loss to the organization but if they keep signing young talent like Beasley and Dragic I can see their rebuilding process being a lot shorter than most would expect. Suns have been really reaping the benefits of Houston’s off season transactions and adding Luis Scola just weeks after reclaiming Goran Dragic should help this team be fun and competitive.

I’m pretty sure they aren’t going to get Gordon anymore, I think they are pushing for O.J Mayo which when I think about it is probably a safer choice. He will not only be cheaper than Gordon’s max offer, but he is a better defender and isn’t injury prone like Gordon. I say Mayo is a better fit.

Luis Scola is worth the money from what I’ve seen from him up to this point he is very consistent kind of looks like a caveman. As a fan you know what to expect from Luis Scola! Michael Beasley I’m not so sure about that guy he has all the talent in the world but to me he lacks drive!